ONE WORDSMITH

Writing to simply change the world...

Monday, February 12, 2018

We all feel it. You know we do. It's that low grade melancholy that is humming in the background of our days... like a radio accidentally left on behind the scenes... droning on for so long that we don't notice it's still there... we don't even hear it anymore.

We have become acclimatized to the murmur of looming extinction. On our present trajectory, if something isn't done, isn't changed, it's not a question of "if" anymore, but "when." We are so deeply gripped by the stages of grief, we can't recognize them for what they are. Denial... anger... fear... bargaining,.. depression... resignation... helplessness... acceptance.

Yes, denial is one simple way to deal with the unthinkable. Ignore it and it will go away. But something that spiritually demands attention and cannot be ignored... well, it haunts.

When humans are faced with overwhelming danger they default to 3 defenses: fight / flee / freeze. This film "How Do Humans Heal a World?" is designed to move grief that is frozen in place and inspire you to move through the grief to the place where we began and belong-- a place that's familiar, that feels like home. A place called "love." And there is where you make a difference. Love is where you heal the world.

Sometimes Compassion Must Be Fierce: Revolution, Renewal and Angela Davis

They predicted it would be standing room only, so I came early; it offers me time to reflect. Sitting at the edge of the balcony with my notebook and a clear view of the entire concert hall, I’m startled by a wave of wistfulness. Suddenly and acutely, I am aware of the passage of time, and momentarily, the passing of an era that invigorated and felt right.

She walks into the hall and a cheer goes up while a tear rolls down...

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Or: How do Humans Heal a World?Heartbreak is a Necessary Beginning

To an observer, the world can look extremely dysfunctional. Humankind seems mired in violence and hate, in political posturing and war-mongering; people who are supposed to be people-of-faith make “illegitimate” and make “other,” those whose beliefs are different; greed and corruption seem to be running the world and we brace ourselves daily against terrorist attacks like those in Paris and more recently, Belgium. As if that’s not enough, we are bombarded with concern for the environment and climate change.

With everything already in chaos, we are afraid to admit to ourselves that the planet may be dying even though we suspect there’s truth in it. It seems that we feel the distress on some level whether it’s conscious or not. We can’t wrap our minds around the idea that life on this planet, which includes human life, could cease to exist. We flee in terror from our feelings in order to avoid pain and having to comprehend annihilation. The mind simply cannot embrace the truth for there can be no evacuation — there is nowhere else to go.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Singer-Songwriter Aliza Hava and Scholar and Operations Manager for the Dominican University School of the Arts and Humanities, Keiko Ehret, tell .us about Standing Rock and their adventures at the camp. This interview is not what you expect- it will startle you from another view.

STANDING ROCK

Photo Credit Adam Alexander Johannson

This is destined to become an iconic photo of an iconic event

“Standing Rock” refers to Camp Oceti Sakowin, an
encampment of water protectors from the Dakota and Lacota Sioux Nations near
Lake Oahe along the Missouri River.

The water protectors are exercising their first amendment
right to peacefully assemble to protest the building of a new Dakota Access
Pipeline (DAPL) that is routed under the Missouri River.

The Missouri River Basin supplies water to millions of
people and an oil spill would affect everyone downstream. Energy Transfer Partners had to reroute the
original pipeline because it came too close to Bismarck and the predominately
white residents there objected.

The Sioux Tribes filed a lawsuit alleging the Army Corps
of Engineers violated several U.S. Laws treaty provisions when they gave DAPL
an easement to build on federal land and land that would endanger sacred sites
on the Sioux Reservation.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

A new way of being in the world:

Cooperation, not competition, survival not of the fittest, but of the kindest. Jon Ramer is the CEO of the global Compassion Games. Here's our interview:

It turns out that the hard work of fixing the world,
uniting the divisions among people and solving painful social problems doesn’t
have to be work at all. It can be fun, inspiring, invigorating and playful and
everybody is welcome to get in on the game!

Just when you think the world can’t get any darker... poisonous politics,
terrorism, militarization of public streets, conflicts, war zones and
inhumanity that makes people refugees and then makes them “other” coupled with
climate changes that threaten life itself... along comes something and with a
flash of insight sparked by the fire of inspiration, the torch of compassion is
ignited and hands from every corner of the world reach for this torch that
resembles, in the moment, something too often elusive-- called hope. Then along
come others to shine a light on how human compassion plays out in the world.

Monday, February 15, 2016

I have had a secret for all these years that I finally admitted-- I have an unnamed hero. It's been held in the quiet recesses of a heart that kept its own council and kept silent about an admiration that was once controversial and likely to raise eyebrows, questions, or worse yet, ire.

What happens to women of a certain age is that they can become bold enough to exit whatever closet they may have been hiding in. That courage, with its late arrival leave one wondering "why" does it suddenly seem important to speak your uncensored truth and let the heart step into the vulnerable.

It may be that it's legacy calling. Or it may be that the time comes when not speaking a truth is the same as a lie.

Meet my unlikely hero in this article...

"Sometimes Compassion Must be Fierce: Revolution, Renewal and Angela Davis.

Decisions that are made right now will determine whether human life will continue on the planet. The best argument for human beings to start getting along with one another on this planet is taking place as we speak. We are one. We'd better "get"that, and soon. We're already past a benchmark set by the scientific community to continue life as we know it. Climate change is already underway under your feet.

The glaciers are melting, the ocean is rising, the weather is changing... and humans are engaging in activities that may lead to the extinction of the species. Whether or not humans will extinguish themselves depends on what we do immediately.

We can't afford to take time to invent a strategy. There is no time. We've talked it to death; we have to stop talking and start doing. The first thing we need to do is a mental adjustment: awaken to the idea that we're all in this together. We are an interconnected and intimate shimmering web of life; the times demand that we stop thinking "I" and start thinking "we." We need an adjustment that opens the heart as wide as the arms and lets everybody in. If we continue this path of "them" and "us" and xenophobia or separation, we will be drafting our own death warrant.

When I talk with people about what they are feeling about the Earth, the environment and planetary stewardship, they all speak to a feeling of sadness, sometimes crushing sadness, sometimes melancholy that is similar to a low grade fever, sometimes a deep grief that lodges as an ache in the region of the chest or rib cage.

I think we all feel it. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we feel a thick sadness. One can freeze in that grief which prevents any movement. What is underneath that bone-aching sadness is love. The love for Earth and all of sentient life is immense. We are, after all, mammals. We feel the connection and we feel the hurt. People will try to avoid the deep heartache that wants to take up residence in the body with distraction, denial, distancing, bravado, avoidance, overwhelm, paralysis, grave sadness, a cavalier indifference, avoiding the subject, becoming and staying angry, disgust, minimizing... Those are all the ways we humans are "whistling past the graveyard" which means creating an illusion of safety so as to deny the danger. Danger motivates. Let it. Love motivates better. Let it.

Monday, April 20, 2015

It turns out that not only are we, the collective, journeying through the stages of grief about what is happening to our planet— whether we are conscious of that grief or not, but we are all personally grieving and inhabit a unique stage of that grief. Journalist Richard Schiffman writes about the environmental crisis through the eyes of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross' seminal work that showcases the stages and coping mechanisms of those facing the end of life and its loss. His essay “The Five Stages of Environmental Grief” is included in a trilogy of his work featured with permission, in the 4th edition of “Words and Violence”—one of the Charter’s educational programs and a permanent installation at Voices Education Project Pedagogical Institute, now adopted as the educational arm of the Charter for Compassion International. Schiffman traces the stages of grief as we travel the environmental path together that we have constructed or allowed others (mindfully or not) to forge into the predictable future. All toward our tomorrows-- on this planet. Or our no tomorrows. Our fate hangs in the balance and is dependent on our awakening and when awakened, engaging in earnest, in the work of healing the planet.Last summer, I staffed a booth for the Charter Environment Sector at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association annual exhibition and conference at their headquarters in Wisconsin. For the 3 days and nights that I immersed myself in dialogue with people walking through the exhibits, a common narrative emerged. I came away knowing one thing to be true: We know. We know and we feel it. We sense what is happening to our world. Everyone I met was feeling it. It was in their speech, in their eyes, in the way they held their bodies, in their language, in their involuntary sighs, in their breathing. Because the problem is earth-sized, (soul sized, really) we can easily stagger around in a state of overwhelm at the magnitude of what we face. And because we can feel so insignificant in comparison, we sometimes cope with defense mechanisms that protect us from allowing that grief in. We armor ourselves against it. Every person I met and spoke to at the MREA was personally in some stage of grief and feeling things like—anger, overwhelm, hopelessness, pain, despair,... All felt a sense of urgency. Some were even using denial, indifference or distraction to cope. There was a lot of anger. There were mostly failed attempts at denial or minimizing. There was some resignation but mostly there was frustration. Many felt powerless. They felt helpless. Impotent. And nobody wants to feel impotent.As a former nurse, I know well the varied stages of grief Elizabeth Kubler-Ross identified in those facing a loss of life. I have accompanied people through those stages during their final journey. I witnessed the same phenomenon in everyone I spoke to at the conference. To a person, each of them was inhabiting a stage of personal grief. Some demonstrated multiple stages. I listened. I understood. I validated. And I congratulated everyone for their capacity to love and the magnitude of that love for their planet—for that is the truth of where and why these feelings arise. And I told them about the Charter for Compassion and the hope intrinsic in a movement racing toward critical mass that aims to spread compassion over the earth and create a more humane narrative for humankind on this planet. I acknowledged the collective pain and vowed to do something to help thaw frozen grief, for grief that is stuck in the human heart-- harms. It can prevent action. To move beyond the grief, we must first acknowledge it and feel its impact to allow it to move through unimpeded. If impeded, it cannibalizes our energy and produces an emotional stalemate. When we thaw, we are freed to move forward.The film featured here is a journey where we are accompanied to our feelings, through our grief (whether unconscious or not) and to the soul-sized message that underlies our anxiety-- LOVE. (Big love.) What triggers this grief is a deep and fathomless love for our planet and its gift of life.

Author and scholar Karen Armstrong, founder of the Charter for Compassion International has said that a compassionate community is an uneasy community-- uneasy because where there is a lack of compassion, there is suffering. And there is likely suffering somewhere in the ecosystem we call "home."

Saturday, February 21, 2015

In the International Health and Human Rights class I'm taking at Stanford, I'm having to confront some very uncomfortable issues. I knew "intellectually" about the oppression of women planet-wide, but that kept me safe at a distance from real harm or real emotion. Since joining the class, I've not just "learned" about how women all over the world "give up" their rights involuntarily at the hands of men, I have come to know some of those women. They have become real people to me because I can interact with them in real time. Imagine the stories that begin "in my country.." and that recount similar yet divergent ways in which women's sovereignty is violated.

How does this happen in the modern age? In the 21st century? Well, it's an old tradition the arises out of ignorance and a sense of "entitlement" on the part of men. Many men around the world believe it's a privilege of their gender to do whatever they wish to women in their culture. Incredulously, some of these same men complain about fascism, cast systems, domination and slavery.

Entitlement and domination come through economic suppression, illiteracy or lack of education, an accident of geography or birth, cultural traditions, religious doctrine, tribal and other rivalry, attempts at ethnic cleansing through forced procreation, war-making and just plain... opportunity.
What is it about human nature that welcomes superiority and an opportunity to wield "power over" another human being? Do we believe so little in our own intrinsic worth that we feel compelled and satisfied to diminish someone else's?

What's really striking about the practice of entitlement, superiority and domination over other beings is that as humans we are NOT hard-wired for barbarism. We are actually hard-wired for empathy and compassion. It's hard work to overcome one's natural inclinations so as to justify the submission of other humans in whatever form that takes. It's a practice of the ego, not of the human heart. We literally have to "harden our hearts" to accomplish violence, barbarism, terrorism and war.

Given the times in which we live and the urgencies that face us as a planet running out of resources, running out of tolerance for human consumption, waste and folly, and running out of time-- we might want to look at how to develop solidarity instead of creating differences artificially and acting out of illusion or delusions that there somehow is forever or endless capacity for human infantilism and egocentrism.

Friday, January 23, 2015

A couple of years ago Eve Ensler (Vagina Monologues) quietly started a movement. It's not quiet anymore. One billion people joined the movement and scheduled activities and staged flash mobs all over the world.

We continue the tradition February 14 in 2015 to stand up and speak out about violence against women. The statistics are sobering. The stories are compelling. The violence against women on this planet is mind-numbing.

But we must not be numbed. We must be moved. We must bear witness to some of the most heinous crimes on the planet and the senselessness of harming women and girls. There are so many ways women are wounded by a kind of patriarchy that is cowardly and criminal. One in 3 women will be assaulted in their lives. This is completely unacceptable. Untenable. It must stop. Womens' lives must be valued. They are the nurturers and bearers of life.

Women are valuable. Real men know that. Real men are kind. Real men stand up for their daughters and their daughter's futures.

No looking away. No excuses. No passes. We must act. And we must build solidarity among women. From mean girls to sex trafficking to the kidnap, torture and killing of women because they are diminished people is inexcusable.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The emphasis in this edition is on Mother Earth, and how
resilient she has been in the wake of our endless "bullying." We've
all heard stories of climate change, deforestation, global warming, pollution,
and the misuse of our natural resources. This new edition helps concretize the
planet's reality, and offers hope for a new beginning, providing ways to take
our concern and move us to action.

Poet and author of Harlem Renaissance
Encyclopedia, Aberjhani, contrasts the philosophy of shared community with
guerilla decontextualization—the insidious and deliberate art of manipulation
in order to discredit and nullify, in Creative Flexibility and
Annihilated Lives.

We enter a day-long healing chamber where we begin Awakening the Dreamer, a
process of waking from the modern trance, healing the grief, and creating an
environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just world.

Artist and storyteller Carol Hiltner, who works with the
Altai of Siberia guides us on a journey with those who have been pushed aside
in favor of modern progress and with Maia Rose, we learn their story from the
inside out in Mother Earth
Cannot Be Bullied.

There is something you casually do every week and more
often, that graphically demonstrates bullying to your children-- from the time
they are toddlers until they become adults. You personally escort them through
a gauntlet of bullying that illustrates, in living color, precisely how to
brutally bully someone, humiliate them, dehumanize them, and sometimes even
dismember them publicly-- for sport and entertainment. This demonstrates to
your children how to take this bullying public by publishing it to a wide
audience. And you do this a minimum of 500 times before they graduate from
school. Your silence gives them permission. You may then wonder, "where do
these kids get these ideas?" And when the principal calls to tell you that
your child has been involved in an incident of bullying-- and not as the
victim-- you may be shocked and asking yourself how in the world your child
learned to be so mean. How? You taught them how and your silence was permission.
You exposed your child freely and willingly to this toxic environment and you
never once complained. Did you Teach
Your Children Well ?

In this edition, educator, author and admitted tree-hugger
Kate Trnka takes us on a fanciful journey with her students as they explore the
magic that awaits them in the forest as they communicate with trees and get to
know them intimately in If
These Trees Could Talk, Park I

Voices Education is the education arm of the Charter for Compassion International. The Charter is
committed through its work and network of partners to bring compassion to the
earth and all living things that call this place "home." You might
even want to join the global movement toward compassion and make a donation.

Friday, August 15, 2014

We are working on the 4th edition of the Words and Violence Project at Voices Education (dot) org, a humanitarian organization and pedagogical institute. The work addresses bullying in all its incarnations and seeks the antidote to bullying grown to epidemic proportions in words and images.

The resource has grown to more than 600 pages with an audience of educators, civic leaders, and the general public in 140 countries.

We are please to welcome contributors to the 4th edition: Robert Koehler of the Chicago Tribune: Richard Schiffman, Environmental Journalist; Author and Poet Aberjhani whose work in "guerilla decontextualization" examines how bullies attack by dismantling the humanity of their target; Carol Hiltner, Author, Artist and Founder of Altai University who works with the Indigenous in Siberia; Kate Trnka, Author an Educator who takes students into the woods for conversations with nature... and more...

We are excited and hope you are too. If you'd like to become a contributor, please let us know by sending me an email.

The ways in which we bully the planet are countless: irresponsible environmental stewardship; exploitation of the Indigenous; mismanagement of land, oceans, water, air; the greed of earth's resources that belong to all, not to those who wish to conscript them as commodities and commerce; the skewed and exploited economy; climate change; artificial agriculture and food production; political indifference or the abuse of influence; the treatment of animals; land grabs and mismanagement; the collective psychic disconnection and denial; the moral vacuum in business and commerce; racism; double standards; the rising phenomenon of a spiritual vacuum; the abuse of authority and power; the trampling of human and civil rights; slavery; conflict; genocide; war...

If you have submissions, ideas and suggestions, or wish to volunteer to help with the project, please contact me.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Author and Scholar Karen Armstrong asked the question: "If we were truly compassionate with self, others and the planet, what would the world look like?"

The Charter for Compassion is asking, and answering, that question.

Karen described her fantasy in a TED Talk that won her the annual prize. She then set out to meet with religious leaders and luminaries asking them to help her draft a "Charter for Compassion" that would transcend all religious, ideological, and national differences.

At the mystical core of all religions lies the Golden Rule. All gods say the same thing: "be what you want to receive." That also happens to be how the quantum world works, so we are talking about creation here.

We are all living immersed in the invisible quantum soup that determines our experience. Do you want fear? Look for it in the world and stir in more... Do you want violence? Go looking for it; throw more into the pot. Or would you like a compassionate world where everybody is a steward of everybody else and the planet?

What will you stir into the quantum soup that becomes the ecosystem you have to live in? If you want to sour the soup bring hatred, fear, anger, prejudice, violence, war... If you want to sweeten the soup, bring generosity, empathy, kindness, love, compassion...

You might ask "is it really that simple?" The answer is "yes." The creation and the cosmos is a dance of atoms and molecules and minds. What if everybody brought their best game and wore their red shoes to the party, could we create a new Oz instead of a faux one?

The Charter for Compassion is asking you to sign on. So far there are almost 900 partners worldwide and close to 300 compassionate cities. It's the best idea humanity ever had and it's growing exponentially. You can join the charter by signing and you can become a member by making a donation whether that's with your money, your time, your talent, your enthusiasm, or your voice to spread the word. Spread the word, spread the world.

Friday, May 16, 2014

On Mother's Day, mothers were recognized for their care, love and sacrifices while raising their children. Some have done it with partners and some single mothers have done it alone. Some have had the privileges that come with a comfortable life, and some have struggled through hardships in places that are challenging, neighborhoods that are poor, streets that are not safe and housing that is barely habitable.

Some mothers cared for their children in homeless shelters or maybe even on the streets because there is no partner or the partner was downsized and they are unemployed, have lost their home to foreclosure or a health crisis drained their savings and bankrupted them.

Some mothers have had to carry water miles to shacks that are sticks and straw while navigating through territory of marauders, rapists and predators. Some mothers have nothing to feed their children. Some children themselves have become mothers to their little brothers and sisters because their own mothers died from an AIDS epidemic that went unchecked by the uninterested. And yet...

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

It was Mother's Day and mothers everywhere were celebrated. "Mother" is supposed to be synonymous with "nurturer," "fierce protector," "first teacher," and one who would lay down her life to save her children.

Kevin Durant, who received MVP (Most Valuable Player) award for basketball, thanked his mother in an emotional speech that ended with his mother getting a standing ovation.

A black man who grew up in a rough and poor neighborhood claimed his stature as a successful professional by saying "we weren't supposed to be here."

He thanked his mom:

“We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe,” Durant told his mother. “You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs. You put food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate and [you] went to sleep hungry. “You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP.”

But there were some mothers who did not celebrate Mother's Day. Mothers in Nigeria spent the day in tears and anguished pleas "Bring our girls home."

Saturday, April 19, 2014

The 3rd edition of Words and Violence an internationally recognized (140 countries)pedagogical resource on bullying in all its incarnations... from the playground to the tabloids to the mortuary-- and hosted at Voices Education Project, featured "Performance Arts" in 2013 because they are a quintessential communicator and change agent to impact contemporary culture. It is one of the places where mass change can occur, where minds are awakened, challenged and where a portal opens for the enlightenment of mass consciousness.

"Performance" is story and communicates with words or without, with photos and images, movement and art... it is often where the human first encounters the mirror of self reflection and the glint of (Aha!) possibility. The arts can paint both the horror and beauty of the human condition and make us Think! (capital T.) It inspires some things and expires others. The canvas of human imagination, this table rasa of potential and raw material of human evolution grows the psyche, breathes inspiration and creates the collective future earth narrative. We are, after all, what we imagine ourselves to be and what we make of ourselves and our ecosystems.

The current ecosystem supports bullying and does it in ways that we don't even imagine because they are so acculturated as to have become invisible to us. But they are there-- like background noise that we no longer hear because it is such a constant low drone. We are infected with a virus-- epidemic and pandemic and while we have identified the illness that the virus causes (despair, overwhelm, cynicism, intractable fatigue, adult and horribly-- youth suicide,) we haven't quarantined the virus nor found its true cause. Time to get into the lab and take a look under the microscopic eye of honest and fearless scrutiny. Here's how...

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Do you often wonder whatever happened to honor and integrity? Altruism? Compassion?

Are you just plain tired? Some days, dog tired? Were you up all night with a sick child? With your children and family responsibilities is it enough just to get the groceries purchased, food on the table, the car payment made, the lawn mowed in Summer or sidewalk shoveled in Winter?

Can you stand one more thing on your list of things that you have to check out? Is it too much to ask you to be informed on every single issue that affects you-- in the financial world, the political climate, your school system, the news, weather and climate change, what products you use that may be toxic, what is being recalled for what reason and that your food is safe?

Don't you wish people would "do the right thing" simply because it's the right thing to do? Wouldn't it be nice to expect the truth because that's just how things are done-- with unimpeachable honor? With impeccable integrity?

Don't you just wish that everybody on this sandbox we call "Earth" would just get along and play nice?

Wouldn't you like to reclaim your idealism or at least retract your cynicism and ...

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Four years before the shooting in the Sikh Temple, it was my own faith that was under attack. In 2008, a man who sharpened his anger on the jagged edge of hate walked into a Unitarian Universalist Church and opened fire killing two people and injuring eight.

The Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville held 200 members and 25 children that day who were presenting a stage play for the congregation. The shooting was politically motivated. The shooter railed against liberals, democrats, African Americans and homosexuals saying they were the ruination of America.

Unitarian Universalists are free thinkers and the standing joke is that trying to organize UUs is something like herding cats. Each is on a different path to faith and understanding. The bonding factor for Unitarian Universalists is that all believe the questions are the answer and each is on a quest for truth. Call it a search for the holy grail if you will-- and it may be religious (or not) but it requires no allegiance to dogma or doctrine. All faiths and journeys to God (or not) are respected. UUs are known for a common dedication to social justice and to make the world a better place.

Jeremy Rifkin says we are hard wired for compassion. I want to believe him. I think it's one of those things like buying a red sports car. When your new car is a red sports car, suddenly you notice that there are a lot of red sporty cars on the road.

Do you see in the world what you are looking for? What you are "accustomed" to seeing? Are you more inclined to notice the vibe you are "attuned" to? It's a kind of resonance. Did you know that a guitar "G" string plucked in a room of guitars will cause all the other guitars to play that same G? And if you strum a "D" all the other guitars will resonate to "D."

A drum struck in a room full of drums will vibrate all of the skins on all the drums. And if you put sand on a on a plate over a drum or music, it will arrange itself in organized geometric patterns.

Did you know that if you put a whole room of clocks with pendulums in a room swinging at different rates, when you come back in the morning they will all be swinging simultaneously?

Monday, September 23, 2013

The Power of Words:

Our weekly Unitarian Universalist Fellowship ("UU church") service ends with these words: “Let us carry the
light of compassion and commitment to build a better world."

A pledge repeated becomes a mantra and a mantra repeated becomes a vow, a deeply embedded blueprint for how one lives life. Vows coupled with strong emotions construct realities. Vows are not to be taken lightly; they change lives; they change the world.

I am a storyteller and studio and performing artist and I believe that the arts-- particularly story and the performing arts-- holds the greatest potential for healing a troubled and broken world.

Monday, September 2, 2013

This brand new 3rd edition of "Words and Violence" features Performance Arts as a catalyst for change, for compassion, for human evolution in “story” conveyed:

Through the force of words

Through the eyes of art

Through the language of movement,

Through the magic of film

Through the magic of storytelling via “song.”

It’s part of the movement toward a new narrative on the planet– one that is compassionate, responsible and deliberately created. WE write the script. WE perform the dance and dramas. WE sing the world into being. WE are the narrators and the narrative. WE tell the story of the world. The world is a performance! Our performance!

Friday, July 26, 2013

We (individually at Voices Education Project) and collectively as a culture, have done a good job of pointing the finger at bullies and bullying. We have raised consciousness to the ceiling.

But the culture of violence continues. Why?
Because we have created school curricula, documentaries, anecdotes and antidotes; we say "It Gets Better," or "I Choose."

We pronounce with any number of clichés, tired pseudo-encouragement slogans, and we think we motivate change. But as long as we miss the point, support and demonstrate a culture of violence, or perpetuate a disconnect between adult behavior and childrens' bullying, the violence is not going away.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Well, I am now duly impressed. This is encouraging: the Huffington Post now has a section: "Tabloid Journalism." Whoa.

I once wrote a piece about an icon-- Whitney Houston, and featured how she was directly linked to Nelson Mandela and his release from prison.

Yes, that Whitney Houston.

Did you know that Whitney Houston was an anti-apartheid activist who began some freedom fighting activities in South Africa disguised as concerts where she sang about freedom? Did you know that Houston's covert activism was one link in the long chain of events that led to Mandela's release from behind the barbed wire?
I wrote that story. It wasn't published. The editor gave no explanation or feedback. It was just... well, ignored. This was shortly after Houston's death and she was she was the manic topic d'jour so my piece was timely. I suspected it wasn't "sexy" enough or macabre enough. It was the truth. But truth often doesn't sell well; it likely wasn't tabloid enough.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

When did mainstream media become "medialoid" and when did social media become "mean-stream?"

One of the initiatives at Voices Education Project is to: "create a more humane narrative on the planet." Why is the current narrative on this planet so inhumane?

When did mainstream media become "medialoid" and when did social media become "mean-stream?" One of the initiatives at Voices Education Project is to: "create a more humane narrative on the planet." Why is the current narrative on this planet so inhumane? When did mainstream media become "medialoid" and when did social media become "mean-stream?" One of the initiatives at Voices Education Project is to: "create a more humane narrative on the planet." Why is the current narrative on this planet so inhumane?

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Friday, August 26, 2011

Words can, and often are, used as weapons. We have seen what happens when there is a call to arms, an incitement to war, a rousing speech from a dictator who condemns part of his own population, racial epithets and hate speech, an organized and violent response to bullying by classmates in schools.

When words are used as weapons, we are all down wind of an ecosystem in which we live, work and pursue leisure that is made toxic by the introduction of cynicism, greed and bullying of real people. Bullying is now epidemic and not just on playgrounds and classrooms. It is on the front pages of newspapers getting their material used to dismember live people in a public forum from hacking and other illegal means. It is in reality TV, "mock"umentaries, and "harmless" comedy routines.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

It seems Wisconsin has become ground zero for a new movement that is a push to bring true democracy back with a few new amendments: Integrity, truth, fairness, accurateness and not manipulation in media, an end to partisan politics, a voice for the people, leaders who listen, human rights, civil rights, civility, inclusion not exclusion, a shift in power from leaders to constituents, acknowledgement of human worth...

Is there an app for that?

Read about Barbara's immersion experience at the Wisconsin Capitol Rally:

Monday, March 14, 2011

There are words and phrases in every language that convey the intention of violence. In colloquialisms, slang and everyday speech we find violent references and military metaphors. When did our casual language get so violent? It is worth examining our speech for indicators of violence. The result may surprise you. The Huffington Post featured my article after the shootings in Arizona that many speculate were politically motivated by a climate of violent rhetoric. What do you say?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Working on the "Words and Violence" Curriculum for the last year has made me acutely aware of the power and impact of words.

The power of words has been recently demonstrated with a worldwide protest against the use of an image and program that crossed a line of civilty and a in the worldwide focus and discussion about a fallen leader-- U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

People are dead including a nine year old girl because for whatever deranged reason, someone found what someone else was saying unacceptable and tried to silence a voice. People died in the crossfire. Crossfire and crosshairs-- those were the buzzwords. They are words that hold charge. And the words we speak should be examined for their lethalness-- just like any other wielded weapon. We can maim, harm and murder people with the weaponry of words.

Words harm or they heal. Words bully. And sometimes they kill.

See my article on bullying with words and images at the Huffington Post...

Friday, March 11, 2011

How many times do we receive an offer to change the world? To make it a better place? To reach the hearts and hands of people across the globe? If that moment comes, the question is first of all, do we recognize this opportunity for what it is? Or do we spin around and look behind us to see whom "they" are talking to? Who me?

If and when that moment arrives what would you do? Laugh? Grin sheepishly? Stammer? Put your nose back in your book? Pick that fuzz from your navel?

It's not widely believed that one person can change the world. Such a giant idea is hard to wrap one's head around, no? Because we expect a full marching band with the arrival of that kind of announcement or invitation, maybe we miss it when it is whispered in ordinary company or flickers by in a fleeting moment. Would you know it if it arrived in your life? And would you RSVP?

A few Thoughts...

When I think about it, my own life is no less rich and the living no less inspiring than my pioneering ancestors and I come from a long line of Indians and outlaws so don't ever turn your back on me!

Life is, after all, a slice of human consciousness lived from its place in human evolution. "From here to eternity" as it were-- from earth to the stars, from personal space to cyberspace, from a small local footprint to the world reduced to the size of a notebook and sitting on your lap!

As a child I lived with the perpetual and immenent threat of annihilation. That's child abuse! It wasn't a kid-friendly world and I couldn't understand why the grown-ups who were in charge weren't doing something?

So at age seven with my face in the window eyes turned up into the night sky and staring at the stars I made a vow: "When I am a grown-up, I will do something."

My writing is that something and I write to "simply change the world." If that sounds like a lack of humility it isn't because I know that one person absolutely can change the world and I've met some who have.

Kay Kennedy put together an anthology that puts the reader in the midst of history to view it from the inside out.

When I was in high school and even college, history classes were stale and boring featuring memorization and regurgitation of dates that coincided with events that had no human face, certainly no magic, and no life!

Anthologies are great fun and stores are rich remembrances. History books chronicle; stories are little narrative slices of living. History comes alive through story. I often think of my grandmother and her story, her life-- the history she lived. In her lifetime she saw humankind evolve from horse and buggy to man on the moon.

BARBARA'S WORK IN "LOOKING BACK"I was a sixties kid and for the youth of the sixties, turmoil, disillusionment, and revolution were everyday 'business as usual'. Like a radio perpetually on low volume, fear and death dronned on in the background. The superpowers threatened to extinguish all life on the planet, the Vietnam War was escalating and peers were being escorted home under American Flag blankets. The civil rights and equal rights movements were testing human civility, and faster than one could recover from one shock another real life hero would fall to yet another assassin. Despair was commonplace. Contrast that with a man on the moon... we could conquer space travel but couldn't make nukes or war obsolete! It was a time when youth needed hope because hope was scarce. When it was finally resurrected, it came in the form of idealism and a philosophy of brotherly and universal love. Perfect principles; imperfect execution.

For others who contributed to "Looking Back," the history is different for each because the "times" were different as well as the perspective of the individuals. The stories of human societal evolution are enlightening, heartwarming, poignant and spellbinding. They put a human face on the past.

Inner Voice Guest Columnist: Man and the Mirror- A Tribute to Michael Jackson and "This Is It" December 2009 page 14

BARBARA

FEATURED IN...

New Anthology: History through the eyes of the people who lived it.

Read the story "When I am a Grownup I Will Do Something

What do they say about Barbara's work? What doe she say?

What do people say about Barbara's work?

"An exceptional article from an extraordinary writer and profound spiritual thinker, one we're fortunate to have in these days overrun by so much violent chaos.

“Posting” does not seem sufficiently appropriate in this particular context because the article is one that overflows with such big and deeply-penetrating ideas that it could almost be described as an important publishing event. "A thoroughly precise, invigoratingly insightful, and compassionately constructed work of exposition, it takes to task the unseen powerbrokers behind the Oz-like curtains of tabloid operationswho apparently delight in in abusing first amendment rights andcreating chaos in the lives of others."

~AberjhaniPoet, Author (Harlem Renaissance Encyclopedia)----------------------------“Barbara Kaufmann’s writing is professional, sensitive, thoughtful, and inspiring. I became acquainted with Barbara through her writing when she submitted an essay and some poems for inclusion in my book, Looking Back: Boomers Remember History from the ‘40s to the Present. To say I was impressed would be an understatement, as I found her words touched the deepest part of my soul. She has that special talent for putting into words, emotions that most of us react with or to, but don’t really understand in any depth. Certainly, few can match her talent for expressing her thoughts.

Barbara grew up as a baby boomer under the constant fear of Cold War, and of possible nuclear annihilation if something wasn’t done to end the stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union. Her essay in Looking Back is titled “When I Am a Grownup I Will Do Something,” and recalls her efforts to improve the world. Her two poems are touching memories of a visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. to find the name of a former schoolmate, and of seeing a missile silo in North Dakota that held the warheads that could ignite a nuclear disaster.

She still seeks to make the world a better home for all living things, and she’s searching for others who want to “create a new and improved humanity.” Be sure to check out her blog.”

~Kay Kennedy, Author----------------

“All of our material is free, coming from over 100 countries, and amassing over 6,000 pages. It has been used by hundreds of thousands of educators and learners throughout the world, as well as the general public. In addition, we have grown our internet community to approximately 40,000 visitors each week and maintain strategic partnerships with over twenty organizations.

Barbara Kaufmann became a Voices member early in our social networking community. She contributed poetry and comments frequently enough to warrant my writing to her to see about her increasing her presence with Voices. It was a "voice" we needed: someone who had a connection with the religious community, the Native American community, was from the Midwest, had experience with the former Soviet Union and our cold war politics, and espoused thinking collaboratively with others.

In the last four years Barbara has become a mainstay of Voices. She initiates so many projects that I can hardly keep up with her, and more importantly she follows through with each and every one of them--whether it is writing on behalf of Voices, pulling together the mechanism for producing the Words and Violence Curriculum with 27 writers from 7 countries, creating the short film "Words" supported by Rachel Portman herself as well as contributing her music, or most recently working with Walking Moon Studios to produce the "Man Behind the Myth" film. A visit to our website will show how enthusiastically this film is being received and recommended.

Barbara is committed to Voices, and we to her. She consistently works to help keep us going. Every non-profit needs a Barbara Kaufmann. We are just fortunate that our Barbara is so talented, articulate and hardworking.”

Creative writing is the most fun for me.. short stories and poetry in particular, but I also enjoy other genres: marketing copy, journalism, grantwriting, web site design and copywriting, brochures, newsletters, features, articles, manuals and more...

Promotional writing or writing projects that convince, sell, inform, guide, enlist, solicit can take many forms…

Proposals and grants:USAID (United States Agency for International Development) that funded our Sister Cities organization partnership with a city in Russia under the START II treaty. The awarded grant funded the development of social infrastructure preliminarily required for the construction and commission of a chemical weapons decommissioning plant and the cooperative threat reduction commitment by Russian-American partners.USAID funded our project for $250,000.

The Earth and the Reason- for Earth Day 2009

From the airshe reminds meof an old woman--wrinkled skin,hills and valleysscars and dimples--a complexionolder than time.

Four billion.Four billion yearsshe has been becoming!Has she too, ponderedher reason for being?Was her destinyengraved and sealedwith invisible DNAevolved from mysteryand blueprints in bones?

The water ran right there,carved that valley.Hills puckered herewith gathers over there,a plateau ends here,the river meanders--all features of characteron the face of foreverin the spiral of time.

They say time waits for no one.Does the Earth wait?Did she?For what? Whom?Has she consciousness?is she or has shea self? Or random inher accident of causewaiting for effect?

All these millennia--a pregnant silence,never knowing,never ending,never not becoming;while I become,then disappear.

Today she is familiar,greets me,telling stories,speaks with my tongue.I ask her to rememberbecause she will be--long beyond me.

A loudspeaker voice says"fasten your seatbelts;we begin our descent."We do descend to Earth,in this metaphor for lifea soul becomes biologyfor a perfect 3 point landingto arrive in matter.Perhaps to matter?To call her "home."

The Captain says we are"preparing to land--"while the metaphor continuesand God knows itselfdrawing the first breath,with a burst and a bangthe labor begins.A messy affairthis humanity birthed.

I know that once againI too prepare to landsomewhere outside this perspective,outside its intimacy,inside its wisdom.A sigh escapesfrom somwhere deep,a tear appears,as the voice far and faint whispers:"Awaken; remember!You are my reasonand now my voice."

"Nighthawks"

A New York Night...the aftermath of nine eleven

Bright and sassythis New York night.A friendly darknesslonely,made of mirageshe endears,endures.The lights dance againas if nothing is different.

Artificial lightgladesskate the waterinky in the harboras nightscape breathwhispers spiritthat fills the soulalmost to the top.

Here on the platformhear the drone of the trainscream of the stopthe mind of the stationa heartbeat nationmore silent than darkwhere memory is a bedwhere hope once fell asleep.

A photograph- "Nighthawks"masterpiece paintingetched with lightagainst blacknesstells magic and storiesof war and a morenoble time, ofold nights that weepwith longing for that placewhere innocence once livedbefore horror met honorand honor survived.

It now tells a storyof night come to perchon thousands ofNew York shouldershunched against the minutehunched against the darkhunched against the storyhunched against the world.

What Looking Back author Kay Kennedy has to say about Barbara

A Blog of Interest

If you’re interested in a site that is well-written and inspirational, you really should check out http://onewordsmith.blogspot.com. Barbara Kaufmann’s writing is professional, sensitive, thoughtful, and inspiring.

I became acquainted with Barbara through her writing when she submitted an essay and some poems for inclusion in my book, Looking Back: Boomers Remember History from the ‘40s to the Present. To say I was impressed would be an understatement, as I found her words touched the deepest part of my soul. She has that special talent for putting into words, emotions that most of us react with or to, but don’t really understand in any depth. Certainly, few can match her talent for expressing her thoughts.

Barbara grew up as a baby boomer under the constant fear of Cold War, and of possible nuclear annihilation if something wasn’t done to end the stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union. Her essay in Looking Back is titled “When I Am a Grownup I Will Do Something,” and recalls her efforts to improve the world. Her two poems are touching memories of a visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. to find the name of a former schoolmate, and of seeing a missile silo in North Dakota that held the warheads that could ignite a nuclear disaster.

She still seeks to make the world a better home for all living things, and she’s searching for others who want to “create a new and improved humanity.” Be sure to check out her blog.

Finding Evidence for Hope.........

How to YOU make your mark on the world? Part of your job while you're here, you know, is to contribute. You arrived here with a mission. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make the world a better place.

My mission is to inspire, to motivate, to cheerlead, to stir... humanity. I write to change the world. My work has been called "art in the service of humanity." Welcome and Enjoy One Wordsmith!

Hope is like breath; we need to inhale it deeply to keep going. It nourishes a thirsty soul. It makes the world a friendly place, not a dangerous one. It gives us reason to live our lives with the knowledge that things can get better, that wonder is still alive, that people do care, that we are valued and valuable. It keeps us out of the emotional cave of cynicism, darkness and despair. There are messengers around who spread this very message in the world. They alone are reason for hope.

One only has to listen to world news to understand that all is not well on the planet. Violence and war are still considered when solutions are being examined. Punishment and revenge are still very much alive. Evil still visits occasionally. Some cultural traditions and pastimes are still negative and abusive. And there are still those who lean toward death and destruction instead of hope and enlightenment. Those who lean into hope are messengers.

There are reasons to keep hoping and to keep hope alive. There are those factions and people who are dedicated to making the world a better place. We may not hear about them on the nightly news (yet) but they are out there making a difference day after day. Sometimes these "messengers" make a difference in the lives of others with a message that reaches thousands or more, some with groups or communities and some with one person at a time. Barbara has launched a new project becoming the "Hope Detective" and in her blog of the same name, she will chronicle her project of investigating, looking for clues to solve problems, arresting the darkness and releasing the light to let it shine. Searches will be conducted for those whose intention is to elevate humanity to a loftier expression, a higher incarnation of itself. Victory, not defeat will be highlighted. Evidence will be collected and cataloged as evidence is collected of human compassion, dedication, mercy, admirable action, inspiration, hope and contribution. Anyone observing any "suspicious" activity--of making the world a better place is asked to report such activities.

Anyone may submit evidence to the Hope Detective of information about... projects, education, actions, music, art, conversations, contributions, ingenuities, inventions, publications, organizations, or other offerings that are designed to build up instead of destroy, lift up instead of break down, love instead of hate, hope instead of despair; things that highlight compassion instead of indifference, involvement instead of apathy, inclusion instead of divisiveness, triumph instead of defeat, and most of all things and people who keep hope alive and well on this planet.

The Hopi (Hope-e) have said that this is the time and... "We are the ones we have been waiting for."

One of the physicians who was a founding member of our sister cities project wrote a forward for my book in progress.

Here is what he had to say...“The dictionary says hope is a feeling, hope is a feeling that what is wanted can be had; that what is desired will happen. Morgan Freeman playing the character Red into the movie The Shawshank Redemption said, “Hope is a dangerous thing…” The Bible puts hope right up there with faith and love. And Jim Carrey in the movie Dumb and Dumber, when confronted by the one in a million odds of getting his girl, turns the tables around and says, “So you’re saying there’s a chance!”

All of these examples of the concept of hope touch a chord deep within us. We need hope for our spiritual well being. The place we find ourselves when we say there is no hope is a very dark place indeed.

And this line of thinking brings me to a most amazing individual who is the author of this book, Barbara Kaufmann. Barbara and I have known each other through the past two decades as members of the peace movement here in the Fox River Valley. We attend the same church and have been members of the Fox Cities-Kurgan Sister Cities program building bridges between the U.S. and former Soviet Union.

I have a medical background strong in the sciences. Given the fact that there are too many humans on this planet and that our collective behavior is at the level of adolescence at best, I sometimes find little hope looking to the future of our web of life…

Then I run into Barbara somewhere and in the course of several minutes, she calmly and with astonishing conviction gives me hope for our future again! I am amazed by this transformation each and every time. I look forward to reading her book in detail. I call her Mother Gaia. For all of us, I wish for hope of all kinds.”

The New Human Experience

What is the “New Human Experience?” Humans have been evolving since the beginning of their appearance on Planet Earth. The evolution involves not just physical and genetic traits, culture and technological advancements, but the evolution of consciousness as well.
The first humans were little more than uncivilized grunting bipeds focused only on survival, self preservation andmotivated by tribal instincts. Evolution has transformed them into a self-reflective and globally conscious race capable of empathy, mercy and compassion. From the cave, through the agricultural and undustrial age, humans have landed in the age of information and technology.
The next incarnation, predicted by anthropology and mind sciences, is a race aware of the collective and not only their part in it, but their responsibility for contribution.
Are we the ones we have been waiting for? I am. I suspect you are too and that's how you landed here.